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In our emails, sent once or twice a week, you'll receive:
• alerts on new threats to Colorado's environment
• opportunities to join other Coloradans on urgent actions
• updates on the decisions that impact our environment
• resources to help you create a cleaner, greener future

Reports

Our new report shows that tapping just a fraction of our state’s solar potential will yield tremendous benefits for our lives, our environment and our children’s future. The report also demonstrates that the rapid growth of solar makes goals what once seemed ambitious readily achievable.

Executive Summary

Colorado could meet its energy needs by capturing just a sliver of the virtually limitless and pollution-free energy that strikes the state every day in the form of sunlight. With solar installation costs falling, the efficiency of solar cells rising, and the threats of air pollution and global warming ever-looming, solar power is becoming a more attractive and widespread source of energy every day.

Solar energy is on the rise across the country.The amount of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity* in the United States has tripled in the past two years. More than half of all new U.S. electricity generating capacity came from solar installations in the first half of 2014, and the United States now has enough solar electric capacity installed to power more than 3.2 million homes. Colorado has been a leader in solar energy adoption, as the state with the eighth most installed solar capacity as of the end of 2013.

As temperatures warm up and the next season of wildfires draws near, Colorado is proving that we can win the fight against global warming. Clean energy policies, such as Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard, are significantly cutting emissions of carbon pollution – the leading cause of global warming – according to a new report by Environment Colorado Research & Policy Center. The report, Moving America Forward, showed that Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard saved 3.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in 2012. That is comparable to the annual emissions from over 750,000 cars.

Every four years, the world’s finest winter athletes gather for the top competition on snow and ice. But even as we celebrate competition and athleticism, global warming is undermining the climate conditions that make the Winter Olympics possible. Nine of the hottest years ever recorded on Earth have happened since 2000. Winter average temperatures across the contiguous United States have warmed more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. The primary cause of this warming is human use of fossil fuels and we need to act now to prevent the worst from happening. Global warming is affecting Winter Olympic sports in multiple ways.